Monthly Archives: April 2014

The authors of Evernight have a brand new team of swoon-worthy book boyfriend candidates. A sexy assortment of cowboys, Doms, detectives, millionaires, royalty, vampires, soldiers, and shifters are just a click away.

Get ready to find your next book boyfriend…

I’m excited to introduce you to Shane Fowler of One Stormy Night and one of the many book boyfriends you’re going to meet over the next few days.

Shane is a little different than most. Not a cowboy, not a millionaire. He’s the boy you wished lived next door – handsome, funny, smart and very sweet. Well, not so sweet according to one ex-girlfriend. But that’s not the point. When you’re together he’ll flash that megawatt smile and have you floating.

That’s what he does for the heroine of One Stormy Night, Alexis Joplin, and they’re just friends…or so they say.

Let’s take a peek at what happens one evening while the two are watching the rain from the front porch of a hundred-year old inn:

From One Stormy Night

“Alexis, you are a beautiful woman.”

“Thank you,” she mouthed.

The gentle breath she blew across his cheek tingled. The subsequent pucker of her lips against his skin burned. Desire to have her flamed in his groin, and not even the furious splatter of rain down his back doused it.

“You’re smart and funny and caring. A woman any man would want to wake up next to,” he whispered. Shane stopped fighting the urge.

He kissed her.

Shane savored the lingering tartness of the wine as he kissed her lips. Bursts of simmering raspberries and cherries tingled over his mouth, adding to the fire growing deep within him.

For a few seconds after slipping his tongue inside her mouth, he thought he’d found relief from the gnawing ache.

Then she kissed him back, sweeping her tongue over and under his in slow, tantalizing circles. How many nights have I dreamed about kissing her like this?

“Damn.” He snapped his head back, excited by the tickle of the murmuring sounds coming from deep in her throat, and lifted Alexis into his lap.

The swing creaked from the sudden movement, but he wasn’t going to let go just yet.

“Oh.”

He covered her mouth with his and caressed her breast. The lush mound was as firm, yet yielding to the squeeze of his hand, as he’d always imagined.

But he needed more than the feel of fabric to satisfy the awful thump between his legs. He slid his fingers under the dress’s crisscrossed neckline until he reached her nipple. Her tender skin shrunk into a point, making it easier to pluck while his tongue danced over hers.

“Shane.” Alexis moaned out his name.

He kissed down her the smooth skin of her neck, now wet from the rain splattering over them.

“Yes,” she whispered into his ear.

I’m not letting her go now. He licked closer to the spot where his fingers played.

Clunk. Clunk.

“Oh, shit.” Alexis tore away from him, staggering to her feet as the swing plummeted.

Plus, each author is giving away their own unique prize! So visit each blog hop stop for a host of fabulous prizes to win.

The Vallory V blog will be giving away a $5.00 electronic Amazon Gift Card or $5.00 in eBucks from All Romance, winner’s choice. One lucky winner will be chosen from the comments so be sure to leave your email address!

How to enter? Answer this question in the comments below…

With only a snippet, a photo, and my description of Shane, where do you think he’d take someone on a romantic date?

Be sure to leave the answer and your email address to be eligible to win a prize. Each comment gives you an entry for the grand prize (one per blog hop stop).

In one of my writer groups, a member shared that she’d submitted a menage piece for an anthology that wasn’t accepted. What she learned from the rejection was what she’d felt while she was writing – she doesn’t write menage at this point in her career. Maybe one day. But not now.

I felt her pain. I don’t write the quintessential alpha male. I like to read about the domineering hero who doesn’t take ‘no’ for answer not even from a feisty heroine until he absolutely can’t breathe. I’ve fallen in love with quite a few of those heroes.

However, I don’t channel them and I’ve tried.

Instead from me you’ll get a mix of brains and brawn and not a lot of cunning. These are men who feel that pull of attraction immediately, but are willing to wait for their heroines to make their own choices.

When I began college eons ago, I became friends with a group of ladies and gents that I still hang out with. At the time we met, we were all virgins. Every single nerdy one of us.

By the time we graduated, only two virgins remained. Unlike the rest of us waiting for our moment to bloom in the eyes of the opposite sex, they had made a conscious decision to not have sex before marriage.

So here’s where my life experience affects my enjoyment of smexy reading material. The Virgin Heroine who is old enough to legally buy alcohol.

In order for me to buy into this woman’s story, I need the reason she’s a virgin. I don’t even care what is – self-esteem issues, daddy issues, religious view point, whatever! Secondly if she’s now going to have sex with this guy then I need to why as well. And sorry it can’t be lust at first sight.

This is a lifestyle choice we’re talking about. Like being a vegetarian, you don’t look at one burger and say to hell with this. This is years of hearing – “Say, girl, you wanna come back to my place?” And the answer being – “No thanks.”

Of all the heroine romantic archetypes, I think the virgin is trickiest one to write for contemporary writers. I applaud those who have done it well and keep me seeking out their stories. And I’m asking for support as I put the finishing touches on my own virgin heroine’s story. Look for it over the Christmas holidays!

Allergies have slowed the work down this week and I didn’t accomplish as much on my second week, but I did accomplish some things. Here’s the wrap up:

The first thing, that I’ve done is to create a writing schedule that will take me to the end of the year. Along with that came a promise to myself that I was going to complete it. Here’s schedule and where I am:

Anthology Submission to Hot Ink Press for an upcoming project called Naughty Bedtime Stories – Received an email that it was received and is under review.

Holiday Short Story – The second draft is going very slowly. I’m trying a new technique and while I think it will produce a better work, it’s taking a lot longer.

Second Shifter Novella – The first draft stalled on Wednesday and I haven’t gotten back to it. Must work on this this weekend.

I also know that I have to get back out there and start connecting with readers and other writers, so I have a few blog hops coming up and some writers lined up to visit the blog very soon.

My grandmother always, always began her responses to the requests of her three grandchildren with, “We got a few more miles to walk before we come that bridge.” It didn’t matter if we were talking about a birthday a few weeks away or Christmas months into the future, the answer was always the same. A few more miles…

I have to tell you that it irritated the Hell out of me. Give me an answer yes or no. Am I getting the bike or not?

Oh, but how prophetic her words were.

As an adult in this new age, I have come to a new understanding. The future is the hands of the child with strongest grip on the flip book. Does he/she turn to the pages of endless class and racial wars or does she/he flip to that page of the book in which we all are equal?

In 2013, the students of Wilcox County, Georgia (not the parents, not the school board, not the governing commission of their community) picked their page and held the first interracial prom in the history of the county since desegregation.

Readers, talk to your children. It’ll make the rest of the walk easier.

It’s been a while. But I’m back in the blogoshere and the writing world. However, it’s not easy to jump right back into late nights, no Candy Crush and marketing, marketing, marketing!

So I’m easing into it, instead of running full steam ahead.

The first thing, that I’ve done is to create a writing schedule that will take me to the end of the year. Along with that came a promise to myself that I was going to complete it. Here’s schedule and where I am:

Anthology Submission to Hot Ink Press for an upcoming project called Naughty Bedtime Stories – This has been submitted and now I’m waiting. If not accepted then I’ll rework and find a new home.

Holiday Short Story – I have a first draft completed at 11,000 words and will begin working on the second draft next week. Plan on submitting this one to Secret Cravings before the September deadline. If not accepted then I rework and self-publish this one.

Second Shifter Novella – I have an outline completed for a follow-up to A Scent of a Woman which will be released by Evernight Publishing in a few weeks. First draft should be completed next week. Please, please let them accept this one!

The Rose Gold Collection – A Loving Affair is in first draft form and Dulce Means Sweet is in outline form. Just got to get started. Choose cover art, contract an editor, hire a proofreader…